ST NINIAN AND ST CHAD
My attention has been drawn to the following “Information” which appeared in the pew sheet of 12 June 2011 of the Parish of St Ninian and St Chad:
“When Archbishop Hepworth arrived at his parish in Adelaide last Sunday, he was faced with a confused, disturbed and anxious congregation. Each of them had received a letter from Fr Brian Tee, together with copies of his magazines, in which he attacks the Ordinariate and urged the congregation to abandon Archbishop Hepworth and the TAC and join the newly constituted church which he has created.
Like the devil is a roaring lion, those who are intent on scuppering the possibility of creating the visible unity of the Church, do not cease to disrupt and discredit what others believe to be God’s will.
Our journey to the Ordinariate is being made more difficult by those who were once in fellowship with us. We must stay resolute, stay firm and above all, keep our eyes focussed on God.”
I would like to place on record that the allegation that I wrote a letter to each parishioner of Archbishop Hepworth’s in which I attacked the ordinariate and urged his congregation to abandon him and the TAC and join “the newly constituted church” which I have “created”, is untrue, and so is the allegation that I sent each of them copies of my “magazines”. Let me make it quite plain: no such letter exists.
To insinuate that those whose consciences will not permit them to convert to Roman Catholicism are like the devil, is not only uncharitable, but unChristian.
As for the “newly constituted church” which I have “created” – I’m not quite sure how preaching and teaching good old fashioned orthodox Anglicanism can be considered to be the creation of a new church. Be that as it may, we must be charitable, we must turn the other cheek: let us keep in our prayers those who desire to enter the Australian ordinariate and become Roman Catholics, and those who desire to remain Traditional Anglicans.
Fr Brian.
